This invention relates to an inflatable life raft escape slide for aircraft and more particularly to a new and improved escape slide for use in evacuating passengers from especially high exits as well as those portions of an aircraft that have external obstructions.
In normal structures of an aircraft, it has been satisfactory to provide a plurality of deployable escape slides from the various exits with slides providing a straight line path from the aircraft""s doors and egress openings to the ground level. These inflatable straight line escape slides in larger aircraft often dictated the location of the egress doors and exits on the aircraft design even though it would be more desirable to provide an exit opening at another location but because of an external obstruction the exit had to be relocated. In some instances it was found necessary and desirable to connect the door""s exit with an inflatable walkway onto a wing of an aircraft. Then, these walkways would be connected to an inflatable slide that extended to the ground surface.
In other instances a porch type structure is used as part of the inflatable slide that is situated adjacent to the aircraft body. The porch inflatable portion of the slide, which is horizontal, provides a turn in direction from the exit door to that portion of the inflatable slide that evacuates the passengers away from the aircraft.
The present invention is directed to a structural design of an inflatable escape slide that accommodates the location of the egress door and openings as needed by design even where there are external obstructions by the use of an inflatable escape slide that has a curvilinear portion, which curvilinear portion may be located near the egress door or further along the escape slide. It is the curvilinear portion that avoids the design obstructions such as wing configurations and nacelles for aircraft engines. In addition the escape slide of the present invention utilizes a double septum chambered construction which permits its use on aircraft structures that require slides of greater overall length since aircraft are larger in construction, height, width and accommodations. The double septum chambers provide greater strength with greater resistance to deformation forces. By use of the present invention, the cumbersome structure of the inflatable porch is eliminated thereby eliminating the significant weight and bulk to the inflatable slide that the porch added to the slide structure.
An aircraft inflatable life raft escape slide for use from an elevated structure such as an aircraft where such inflatable escape slide is deployable from an egress opening having its head end at such elevated openings and a toe end, upon deployment, located adjacent the ground level. The escape slide has an upper sliding surface with a longitudinally extending center line and with a portion of such escape slide being curvilinear in plan view to facilitate its deployment where there are obstructions such as the wing portions of an aircraft and its engine nacelles. This structure permits the aircraft design to accommodate the proper spacing of escape slides along it entire length. In addition, the escape slide has the curvilinear portion skewed to enhance the safe movement along the slides""s length at the curvilinear portion as there is a change in directional movement of the evacuee, otherwise there is a continual movement in the same direction by the law of physics. This structure is thus extremely useful in view of the fact that aircraft structures have become increasingly larger and it is necessary to take into consideration the increased speeds that occur in evacuating passengers from these increased elevated structures. The escape slide is also provided with a double septum chamber structure to increase its resistance to deformation under load and adverse weather conditions.